Essay Example on Parents Helping Kids Find Their Strengths for Career Choice

In the contemporary world, parents have eased on the tendencies to choose a career path for their children. Instead, they are playing a facilitative role to help the children realize their strengths, which can guide them in making the right career choice (Nawabi, 2019). The trend, however, does not mean that parents have abdicated their role in exposing the children to the right education, information, and experience. In high schools, there is also a notable emphasis on the importance of students choosing their pathway before completing high school. In New York City High Schools, as an example to many other high schools in the country, students are adequately prepared and advised on the imperativeness of choosing the right pathway. The main paths after high school include attending a college, learning a trade, or joining the military. Interestingly, none can be argued to be better than the other, as long as one makes the right choice based on passion and their strengths. Loving what you do is akin to never having to work a day in one’s life. To explore the ways context may shape career choices, we used a qualitative approach to analyze interviews with college-oriented high school students from the rural Central Appalachia region of Virginia. Using social cognitive career theory, we analyzed pathways to career choices and relevant contextual factors, using data from 24 interviews. Results revealed that participants’ pathways partially matched the model, though we also found variant pathways triggered by significant environmental influences and incomplete pathways due to variations in possible career plans. Explanatory factors included status as prospective first-generation college student, outcome expectations that included remaining local and having job stability, and an emergent factor of continuing generation Appalachian. The patterns that emerged with respect to contextual factors and career choice pathways highlight the importance of culture and context when examining how students make career choices. This research extends prior research by examining career pathways using student’s own words as data. Moreover, the patterns offer insights career coaches, counselors, and educators can use in supporting students’ post–high school career planning(Carrico et al., 2019). Not making the right choice open room for multiple career changes, frustrations, and costly adventure. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess and make the right choice for my pathway after high school.

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As aforementioned, no path is more superior to the other. Each choice has its own merits and demerits, and of importance is to choose a pathway that fits one’s strengths, passion, and future projections. 'You've got to find what you love', Jobs says, I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking:

"We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?"

They said:

"Of course."

My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I …"(Jobs, 2005). College pathway has the advantage of fostering the right professional skills, qualities, and expertise needed mainly for the white-collar jobs. Choosing this path would, therefore, be appropriate for a person who targets to excel in academics and ultimately in their white-collar jobs. However, the college pathway is expensive, with an average cost of $100,000 (Nguyen, 2014). Also, completing college tames, on average, five years, and there is a possibility of not excelling in academics. Besides, even after excelling, the labor market is quite competitive, and no guarantees are given of getting employed upon completing college studies.

Conclusion

Going to a trade school is best suited for those seeking to engage in craftwork, those with academic transcripts that are not so pleasing, or those seeking to ultimately land a degree course but currently financially constrained. This study was the result of an action research project between a local urban school system and the Physical Education faculty at a nearby college. The faculty and the teachers worked together to design, administer, and analyze a student survey that would give voice to middle and high school student perspectives on physical education. Over 5000 surveys were returned. When asked to rate the most important reasons why students choose to participate in physical education, most students agreed that they liked to get out and move, they liked competitive team sports, it made them healthier, and they had fun. When asked why students would choose not to participate, most students agreed with that they didn't like doing the same activities every year and that showering and changing were barriers to participation. Some differences in responses were found between middle school students and high school students.